Charging head first into the new year. It's been a while since our last blog post, but that's not to say the last few weeks haven't been eventful. Besides running experiments, making figures, and submitting grants, we've been up to a lot. Check it out below!

With teaching, classes, rotators, and more awaiting at the start of the academic year, the lab celebrated the waning summer days with a trip out of Cambridge to get dim sum and boba. Despite the challenge of identifying vegetarian-friendly items (not trivial when it comes to Chinese food), we all left with full stomachs. It was even some people's first time trying boba!

As August turned into September, we had another festive occasion: Amanda's birthday! Since she's not a huge fan of cake, Brian bought some pies from a local bakery, Petsi Pies, to help celebrate.

Now that the academic year has begun, we're all steeling ourselves for a busy semester. Recently, posters have been popping up around the chemistry department advertising the fall open houses for different labs. Ours is still quite a while away, but we couldn't resist pinning up some posters in the meantime. We'll leave you with our teaser:

Happy hour! With the summer days being hot and humid as they are, and with science being, well...science, the lab needed some refreshment. Thankfully, it was BOGO at our favorite coffee establishment. What would we do without caffeine?

High-quality tea for a high-quality lab. Taking a well-deserved break, some group members made the trip to Davis Square to enjoy some boba (a.k.a. bubble tea). Here in the Liau Lab, we have discerning palates.

It's been quite an eventful week. Between reorganizing group responsibilities, cleaning the lab, kayaking on the Charles, and engaging in gluttony in the backyard of Harvard Divinity School, our stamina has truly been tested. However, despite the strain on our minds and backs, we all had a blast.

Tasty.

Kevin rests his aching body during the cleanup.

First up on the docket: reorganizing and cleaning the lab. Although fighting entropy is no small feat, we were fortunate that our very own Kevin Ngan was among those leading the charge. Several meetings and a full day's worth of cleaning later, we ended up with a myriad of spreadsheets, room upon room of labeled drawers, and a defrosted -80˚C freezer to show for our efforts.

To gather supplies for our upcoming barbecue, we naturally turned to Costco. It was quite the adventure.

Shopping at Costco.

We bought a lot of food.

Next, taking advantage of the summer sun, we went kayaking on the Charles River. With the barbecue looming later that night, it was probably a good idea to get some exercise in. Many thanks to Ally for spearheading this outing!

The group poses on dry land.

The group poses not on dry land.

Wholesome undergrad friendship.

The boss kicks back while the grad student rows.

Of course, the highlight of the week was our potluck barbecue. While our lab is normally fairly health-conscious, we put aside our better judgments to enjoy the night.

The party begins.

Grillmaster Brian.

And that's it! We're all back to our benches (or hoods) now, hard at work. Be on the lookout for some scientific news in the near future :)

...and if you're not tired of seeing our faces, check out the rest of the pictures below!

The tale of the great departmental evacuation of 2018. With just a few days leading up to the Fourth of July holiday, blaring sirens announced trouble. Like all intrepid scientists, none of us initially paid attention–that is, until we heard there was in fact a chemical leak downstairs and the whole department needed to evacuate. Thankfully, the problem was resolved before the end of the day, but not before we all got a dose of "fish out of the water" syndrome.

Check out the pictures below to learn more about our lab's foray . . . outside.

The group enjoys some refreshing gelato to cool off from the hot day.

Same gelato, different camera angle. PC: B.B. Liau.

Professor Liau prepares a lecture for the class...

...until we were kicked out of said classroom. Time for class outside!

An undergrad-friendly adventure. What do you do when you plan an impromptu brewery outing but find out only upon arriving that anyone under 21 needs a parent or guardian present to enter?* You turn around and go to a local pub for beer and burgers! After all, family means nobody gets left behind, or forgotten.

*And yes, we did call ahead. They straight up lied to us.

The Liau Lab enjoys beer and wholesome American food at a local watering hole, RF O'Sullivan's.

A good number of our fellow classmates recently joined the Jacobsen and Liu research groups. In the spirit of the holidays as well as a birthday (Dennis, pictured far right), we hit The Border Cafe, a local favorite in Harvard Square. Despite being a veteran of the Cambridge area, YP (left) discovered he couldn't take the heat of Border's salsa.